Illustration within design

This interests me greatly due to fact that when compared to other forms of design, such as photography, you mostly have to use what is available to you or hope you find a moment in time to fit your idea.  With illustration the boundaries are less defined and it's more to do with how far your imagination takes you and your skill with a pen.

No one needs to know what you did last night

If you are skilled enough and you know your idea through and through, there is a chance to create an original, stylized, solution, where it is displayed exactly how you intended.  No interruptions or accidents.  Just 100 percent idea with only a pen limiting your thoughts.

Image received from this website

Memory and Humanity - Album Art

Funeral for a friend

Art as a form of advertisement.  It takes the title of the album and seems to convey it in a form of art.  The visual itself is a clever interpretation which uses the title and adds depth to the words.  It allows the viewer to think the words relate to the image and therefore makes you explore their meanings in correlation with the composition.  Or it allows you to think "ooh, that's a pretty picture".  That's the beauty with some pictures.  It satisfies the deep thinkers and the easily pleased alike.

(19-Nov-2008)

When I actually bought this album I was pleasantly surprised with the way it was presented.  The case was in the form of a book, not the usual plastic cases you find!  It combined the CD case within the book which made it stand out compared to the shelves of clear plastic copies.  It is something I haven't seen before and I commend the company for such a different approach.  The book has the exact dimensions of a CD case, is hardback and holds the CDs in each cover with the accompanying booklet infused into the books pages.  This is a new medium to store the contents which I like due to it relating the CD to a book.  Very unique indeed...

What makes good design enjoyable?

Good design seems to be found by changing our perspective of something. Getting something we are used to seeing every day and changing it so we view it differently.

Buy one here if you want :)

I think it works well as we notice a depth to the work that is usually not apparent in lesser design. We know just by looking at a piece of work that a lot of thought has gone in to it. We respect that the artist has taken the time to turn away from the norm and strive for the new. I think we also like it because it teaches us something in a way. It becomes a simple message showing us a more interesting side of an object that we thought to be plain and unmoving. Thus opening our eyes for a second and allowing us to crawl out of the midset we are in day-in, day-out. An original piece of design becomes something that expands the viewers mindset, shows them a new perspective, allows them to be impressed, and for a second, makes them think they know a little bit more about the world.

Still, it's not an easy thing to achieve...

Mr. Toledano will see you now

Hope and fear is the external manifestation of the internal desires

and paranoia that are adrift in America

There is nothing more beautiful than absence

This website is the nicest one I have found in a while. It's so easy to navigate, the work is displayed professionally and there isn't a bundle of writing to confuse you.

It essentially advertises Mr. Toledano's work through a simple online portfolio. He has some stunning photos which are backed up by some in-depth topics. Some address very personal feelings and subjects and he shows a kind of understanding in his subject matter that is hard to achieve.

Through his photography he manages to capture what he intends to and each portfolio is titled with a fitting name. One that adds depth to the images within it and heightens their meaning.

View the Website

Conceptual Thinking

The fountain

Marcel DuChamp is an artist I came across when studying what makes a piece of art just that...a piece of art. Perhaps his most famous piece, or most well-known to our generation, is The fountain. This is just a toilet put in a gallery to promote a concept and to the average person is rubbish. How can a toilet be a piece of art you say? When compared to the magnificant paintings of artists such as Picasso, Salvador Dali and Michael Angelo to name but a few. Well the meaning of the piece is apparent when you look deeper.

The fountain is one of a series called the readymades which challange the idea of what makes something a piece of art. Marcel DuChamp came to the conclusion, of sorts, that the difference between art and not art is simply the artists choice for it to be so. The fact that this toilet was in a gallery makes the public view it as a piece of art. It challanges us to view things differently and re-assess what we think to be original. Can we change what we already know to come up with something truly original?

Poster for EventBrand.net

Poster for EVENTBRAND -

the leader in event industry in Ukraine.

Dinal Kryvoruchko works in Moscow and his work is visually stunning. He has done work for EvantBrand (featured above) and a campaign to advertise MTV Russia Movie Awards 2008 depicting a creature with one eye and two pupils. As you look at his work the ideas are complex and impact is always there. He must spend a massive amount of time on each of these to keep this standard up. A good source of inspiration.

Check his work out here

Toyota, Lower Emissions

Bringing us closer to nature

This is a beautiful poster which represents Toyota's goal to lower fuel emissions and therefore being less harmful to nature. It is visually stunning however the concept is a little difficult to follow. It is in need of a short explanation to make it understandable, however, I do like the idea a lot and the thought of a tree being human bodies is very imaginative. Nice execution!

Concept Art Community

Gez Fry

This is another online community based on concept art.  It contains a wide variety of  ideas and imaginative insights.  The website itself is fitting and veers more towards the work of the artists rather than the artists themselves.  Advertising mainly their concepts and talents and allowing their personalities to shine though their work.

I like a lot of the illustration styles featured on this website.  Gezstar, who's work I have chosen above, stood out in particular.  The mixture of photography and illustration created a ghost-like atmosphere and delivers well on many levels.

Visit the website

Food for Giants

The creme de la creme egg

Food is the thing we all have in common. Giant food however is limited to a small community it seems, and no these aren't giants, these are ordinary people who like to pimp their snacks to the max.

Featured above is just one example of a growing list showing snacks that have been recreated to high detail, the only aspect that is different is that they are bigger...much bigger. There is definitely an emphasis on size, effort and style when it comes to creating your giant snack. This website gives you step by step guides to allow you to follow along if you feel it necessary. It is very easy to navigate but the layout is in need of a face lift to make it seem more applicable to the target market.

Could these larger scale pieces of food double as art? They are certainly entertaining to look at when compared to their smaller cousins. The amount of effort required on the creators part is also relatable to that of an artist. The imagination applied is in how you get the end result, the process, not in what form you want to achieve at the end...although there are some examples of this. Either way they are visually entertaining.

Here's the website if you're interested in creating huge snacks yourself:

http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/index.php

There is also a Skoda advert which uses a concept similar to the ideas on this website. It can be found on youtube and is definitely what I would class as a piece of art.

Rough Hands

Rough Hands - Alexisonfire

This song will obviously not be liked by everyone but for a moment just forget that you hate music like this and then look again.

Songs that capture moods and enhance them through a short experience, such as this, are works of great creativity in my opinion. It's really difficult to create good lyrics, create matching melodies and deliver them successfully. The fact that this song has found a concept and delivered it well makes it stand out in my opinion. I am obviously biased towards liking it as I like the band but this doesn't mean I'm wrong. If you read the lyrics (which you have to due to it being difficult to hear) you find that the mood of the song matches the ideas within it.

Rough Hands, taking the term literally, could be considered a symbol of a person becoming old or a hint that a person has been through a lot of hardship. The way simple things are interpreted and expanded upon to explain strong concepts in music is one that is similar in visual media. The link is very close and when the application is acheived successfully it tends to make the work stand out.

Other songs within their repitour have similar standards of creativity and depict images through crazy lyrics like:

The sky's a brick wall. The ground's a juggernaut. Each day they get a bit closer. Between them, i am caught.

This is taken from the song This could be Anywhere, which creates a dark image of a city and its inhabitants, a gem of a song in my opinion. The creative approach to these visions is very inspiring and the way they paint such a good image in your mind is perfect. If you can handle the screaming and darker side of their music then there is a lot of inspiration to be absorbed in how they translate their ideas across.

Rodolphe Simeon

2 Feet in Heaven

Rodolphe Simeon has conjured up some moving photographs on his website which make up some inspirational portfolios. The photo featured above is one that particularly caught my eye. It not only shows the figure above the bottom edge of the photo, (that we usually assume to be the ground), suggesting they are floating and therefore nearer to heaven, but it also hints that the person has recently passed away. This covers the caption in two perspectives using a simple composition. Very cleverly applied, effective and clear to the observer.

Also present on the website are portraits which pose the characters to be almost fairytale like, especially apparent in the M-People and some of the Women portfolios, which have an underlying darker attitude when compared to the more subtle The Street portfolio. This reminds me of Tim Burton who has a similar style.

It impresses me how so many emotions can be created through the face of a person. Some of these photos only use a minimal amount of "special effects" in order to generate a personality from the subject material. The possibilities available from something so common to us all is really quite amazing. I personally think it's a wonder how we never get bored of looking at faces and their ever changing configurations. If you can do so much with just a face then the scope for creativity for an artist is huge.

Website is below:

http://www.m-peoplephotography.com/index.html

Hell is for heroes album art

http://www.hellisforheroes.net/index.php

I came across this album and really got drawn to the technique used for illustration. The photo is taken from the view everyone is used to, whilst sitting in a car, however the windows have been used to depict images and light is blocked where the paint is used. The way the light penetrates through areas of the paint and illuminates the inside of the car creates beautiful siluettes on the fabric. In this isolated atmosphere, the car, it transforms the space into something new. The viewer can be "inside" the work of art and be surrounded by it. The flowers on the dash board also reflect colour onto the windows which makes the paint glow and the illustrations themselves are effective. It's the whole idea of transforming something ordinary into something new, a piece of art. I love the end result but wouldn't like to have it there permanently if it was my car...

Tree art

These show how the material used in a piece of art can change it's impact.  If this structure was made from something non-living it wouldn't be as impressive.  The fact that this tree has taken years to grow to this shape, or to be moulded to this shape, gives the piece more credibility and with this, I think, comes a greater respect for the piece itself.

The link between nature and art is a formula that proves to work well.  It seems that if you take nature out of its' original context then it becomes art.  Nature should be irregular and random or at least behave in a certain way.  Once we start moulding it to something different it can be considered art.  Is this true with all things?  If we set things to one purpose and display them in a unique way does this become art...?